


Not Just Another Look

by Ukthxbye



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Banter, Dating, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Humor, Getting to Know Each Other, Molly Hooper Appreciation, POV Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Fluff, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 02:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15985250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ukthxbye/pseuds/Ukthxbye
Summary: Sherlock has been checking out Molly's Instagram and has questions.





	Not Just Another Look

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Day 5: Sight for Molly Hooper Appreciation Week
> 
> I was on eBay looking at my saved searches for Molly Hooper cosplay and I thought about her evolving style. And boom, bunny.
> 
> thanks to Mouse9 for her encouragement

_Jumpers that must require extra work to find or at least access to an older woman’s closet. Today's is modest, only four different colours in its weave. Colours, well not always unpleasant in this drab greyness of the lab. An endless supply of tan pants and serviceable work shoes. But her social media, she is completely different. Smart dresses, heels, and that bikini for that one holiday. Yes, let's not focus on that too much. Just ask. Carefully._

“May I ask you something, Molly?” Sherlock asked suddenly, breaking the silence after watching her intently for several minutes.

“You can ask me anything though I may not answer you unless I want to,” she smiled confidently, glancing at him just enough before looking back to her microscope. Her brown eyes are bright and look right through him.

 _How does she do that, like a leg sweep every time or punch to the face when you thought you made the block,_ he pondered.

“Yes...of course,” he replied, eyes narrowing in the study of her movements. He scanned memories and wondered if she has always been this way and he only has begun to notice. He shook away this study and goes back to his original thoughts. “Why do you dress in such dowdy clothing at Bart’s when I see you, but I see from photos you dress like you shop Oxford Street during your time off?” He asked plainly.

She furrowed her brow but it slowly crept into a sly smile, “Someone has been on my Instagram”

He did not answer that except with his eyes which peep at her as he turned his head away from her and swallowed.

“We all have different lives lived parallel to each other, do we not?” She said nonchalantly as she passes around behind him to get a slide.  

“Yes that is true, but the line tends to blur over time for most,” he surmised, not taking his eyes off her as she came around him.

“Then I am not like most I guess,” she smirked, passing again behind him back to her microscope. She gestured at him broadly, with her free hand, “Not everyone just keeps to formal wear all the time like you.”

He frowned, cocking an eyebrow, “Formal wear? It's a suit. Always appropriate and smart. Gets me in everywhere without question. Besides I do have the shirt two top buttons undone.” He smoothed the grey shirt front instinctively.

“I’ve seen you wear a pair of jeans two times in all the years I’ve known you. I am sure if I saw you in a pair of shorts, I wouldn’t believe it,” She giggled. “I would suspect I was hallucinating.”

Sherlock nodded, and half laughed “Well, one of us would need a drug test surely if that was the case.”

She rolled her eyes a bit, but asked earnestly, “Even on holiday, Sherlock?”

“Yes even on holiday; not since I was a child,” His face lit with a hint of smug, but she quickly changed that with the fall in her face.

“Then I am not the one who needs clothing questions asked,” she said with pity in her voice.“When was the last time you were on a holiday?”

Sherlock shrugged and bent back to his microscope feigning like it was the most compelling thing in the world.

“My turn for a question. Have you been stalking my social media?” Molly asked as she moved closer into his space. He felt his muscles tightened as his skin tingled lightly at the thoughts his mind jumped to; thoughts of her being much closer than she was now. But she stayed a safe enough distance and leaned against the workspace.

He cleared his throat and attempted to act slightly disinterested. “Curiosity that's all. That is the point of social media, is it not? Why take the photos if you don’t want someone to see them,” he sniffed. “I only just looked at it and perused recent ones.”

He is lying. He knows how he looked at all her photos and studied them.

She bit her bottom lip slightly at the corner; he spied it out the corner of his eye. “So you are curious about me then?” she teased.

 _This will undo you if you do not turn it back to your advantage,_ he reminded himself.

He smiled, looking up from the microscope, “Yes, how is it any different than everything else that I do. I was merely curious about your differing behavior with the manner of your dress as related to other people.”

It sounded right in his head but _if she decided to be clever, she will see right through it,_ he grimaced internally

“I don’t dress for anyone but myself. I think my jumpers are proof enough of that” she huffed.

 _Ah, there’s the weakness and your in,_ he thought.

“So the lipstick you refresh when I visit Bart’s… or that dress you wore at Christmas years ago …” he began lightly and saw the chink in the armor.

He holds her stare, ”Those were just for you, of course.”

She looked away quickly, biting the bottom inside of her lip from sudden nerves.

“You know you are different than others. You’ve always known,” she said glancing back at him, her eyes attempting to be steady but her picking at her fingernail revealed her resolve slipping away. 

And before he could comprehend it he took her hand in his. Warm, slightly rough in spots like his. Her eyes widened as she looked down at their hands together. They both stared, studying this new sensation as if it was separate of them. He recorded how lovely, small and correct her hand felt in his.

He spoke before his nerve failed him, “We both have work to finish today, but perhaps after we could--”

“Get coffee?” she said as she turned her chin up toward him, risked a small smile and a glance that looked a bit too sad for his taste.

“No, I was thinking have dinner,” He said sincerely with a soft smile.

He turned the smile more suggestive as he rubbed her hand with his thumb in circles, “Perhaps you can wear that yellow chiffon dress, with bits of sequins? It's off the shoulder, compliments your skin and eyes very well.”

She blushed but then laughed lightly, with a knowing look. “Dinner sounds lovely. That dress...hmm. It could have just been the filter. Well, long as it still fits, it's been a couple years since I wore it for coworkers wedding.”

She raised an eyebrow along with the corner of her lip as she dropped his hand and folded her arms, waiting for his response.

 _Shit, I am caught,_  he realized too late she knows how far he went into her past photos.

“Yes...or something else is fine too. Dressing for yourself after all,” he fumbled out, smoothing out his coat reflexively as he stood to make himself taller and looked away from her.

“Mmmhmm, just the most recent photos, right?” she smirked. “Off to finish some paperwork and I’ll go home and change. You pick me up at mine?” She turned to go toward the door.

“Yes, I’ll be there at half past 9,’’ he said, risking a look back at her that would likely reveal all his nerves and want.

“I’ll be ready,” she beamed a smile, backing out the door to the lab.

He breathed out loudly in relief as the door closed.

She popped her head back in suddenly and he sucked all the air back in.

“Wear that purple shirt of yours, you know, the really tight one,” she said with darkened eyes, “ It looks sexy on you.”

And with that, she disappeared again and he grinned smugly to himself.


End file.
